On Aug. 10, 1982, Beth Bramlett's body was found near railroad tracks outside Axtell by a fisherman, according to the report. She appeared beaten had gunshot wounds to her head and chest.

The case went unsolved for 35 years, but thanks to help from the office's newly established cold case unit, they were able to determine the murder suspect was one of the initial people of interest in the homicide investigation.

The Cold Case Unit pinned the homicide on Talmadge Wayne Wood, who died in 2014 at the age of 74, according to the report.

Bramlett left a house party near Tradinghouse Lake at about 1 a.m. with Wood's daughter and another friend, according to the report. The friend said he didn't have enough gas and that he needed to go home, so Bramlett got out of the car and started walking, planning to get a ride from someone else.

Wood's daughter and the friend returned to the party. Wood was allegedly upset to see his daughter there and told her she had better beat him home.

Wood allegedly left the party five minutes before his daughter did, and though the daughter traveled the same route, she didn't see her dad at home.

Investigators believe Wood had an ongoing dispute with Bramlett, who waved him down for a ride home that night. They believe that's when Wood killed her.

"He made statements that he knew his daughter was at the party and that she better not be with Beth. What his beef with Beth was, we can only imagine.," detective Terry Fuller was quoted as saying in the report.

Investigators found out later that Wood had come home that night around 4:30 a.m. covered in blood. But crucial evidence didn't come out until after his death, according to the report.

"People were scared to death of (Wood)," Fuller said.

Another deputy, Capt. Steve January, said the same thing.

"We had people who told us that the only reason they went to his funeral in 2014 was to make sure he was dead. People were terrified of him and they wouldn't have talked if he was still alive."

Wood was convicted on two counts of attempted murder in an unrelated case in 1982 and setenced to 10 years of probation. Two years later, according to the report, he was sentenced to 10 years of prison for a carjacking.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com